“Hennessy on Ice” [ft. Bookie T]

Last year’s Before I Wake mixtape felt like a spiritual recharging for Kamaiyah—a space for the Oakland rapper to re-calibrate her game plan over silky throwbacks. She sounded more measured there than she had on her 2016 debut, but it felt like she was building momentum towards something bigger to come: “I smell my revenge coming,” she sing-songed on “Slide (Bet),” a subtle square-off against anyone questioning her standing in the game after a relatively slow year (her label included). Some would say that the best revenge is starting 2018 off by co-starring in a Sprite commercial alongside Lebron James. Alternately, you could get absolutely twisted off Hennessy and write a slapper about it. Kamaiyah did both.

“Hennessy on Ice” is a return to the exultant swing of A Good Night in the Ghetto, and it’s one of Kamaiyah’s best song since that breakthrough mixtape. Her half-sung chants channel the hard-earned abandon of leaving a long day’s work to go party, giddy with renewed optimism: “All twenty-one-eight, you’ll see me paid/All twenty-one-nine, you’ll see me shine.” The Juicy Beats production, with hard-hitting drums and room-filling G-funk synths, is pure late ‘90s extravagance, and singer Bookie T’s backup melodies evoke the jiggy euphoria of Y2K-era rap/R&B crossovers Jagged Edge. It’s a promising step towards Kamaiyah’s forthcoming debut album, and a fine addition to the canon of odes to brown liquor.